DENVER -- Before Saturday's 10-5 loss to the Giants, Rockies manager Walt Weiss said he thought right fielder Carlos Gonzalez was back to his normal self after a recent rough patch. It would just be unfair, he added, to expect three hits with a home run every night.
However, that's exactly what Gonzalez did in a 3-for-5 performance Saturday.
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May had been a struggle for Gonzalez, who was hitting .183 over 19 games, including a 2-for-32 stretch. Now Gonzalez has a six-game hit streak during which he is batting .480 with two home runs, including one in the seventh inning Saturday that put the Rockies ahead, 5-4.
"It's just baseball, you know," Gonzalez said. "I continue to work no matter what, even if I'm doing well or bad. I was going through a bad streak, and now I'm back on track, so all I'm trying to do now is stay the same and try to help the team."
Weiss trusted Gonzalez, playing him in every game of the month and giving him pinch-hit appearances in the two games he did not start.
"We've been working a lot," Weiss said. "[Hitting coach] Blake Doyle has been working a lot with CarGo, and he's worked hard through the stretch where he struggled."
Early-season struggles are not foreign to Gonzalez, who hit .219 for the first two months of 2015. However, he turned things around afterward, hitting .292 over the remainder of the season.
For Gonzalez, the key has been to not overthink his struggles.
"I've been working with [Doyle] for years, so it's all about timing," Gonzalez said. "Being on time with the ball, trust your hands, don't try to do too much, and it's been working. We always try to make things simple. Don't make it too complicated. Just continue to work and trust yourself."